Bowl projections 2012: Kansas State could face Stanford in Fiesta Bowl

Knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten by Baylor on Saturday, the Kansas State Wildcats are now being projected as representatives to play in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl against the Stanford Cardinal, according to Stewart Mandel of SI.com.

The Wildcats need to beat Texas on Dec. 1 in order to wrap up an official Big 12 Championship due to the fact that no league title game will be played this year, and the Fiesta Bowl would be the logical choice for the former No. 1 team in college football to wind up if everything holds. While the true destination will ultimately depend on how the final few weeks of the season play out, Kansas State's ill-timed defeat likely signaled the end of any chance it may have had of playing for a national championship.

Although Stanford remains a popular choice after taking down Oregon over the weekend, the Cardinal still needs to pull off a win in its season finale against UCLA and then win the Pac-12 title game in order to represent the conference as an automatic qualifier. Considering that winning out would cause Stanford to head to the Rose Bowl instead and a loss would spell the end of the Cardinal in the BCS talks altogether, it's very likely that Kansas State may never actually play Stanford this postseason.